July 8, 2011

WASHINGTON, July 8, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Washington Post won two first-place awards, while The Seattle Times, The Salt Lake Tribune, McClatchey Newspapers and The Wall Street Journal won one apiece in the annual National Press Club journalism awards competition. PBS was among the broadcast winners. MSNBC.com and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting won for their online journalism and outstanding multimedia reporting.

"We are proud to associate ourselves with outstanding journalism, and to remind the public why journalism matters," said National Press Club President Mark Hamrick. "Despite tremendous technological change and continued tumult in our industry, our awards are a celebration of triumph over these challenges."

The Washington Post's Dan Balz won for his analysis of the atmosphere that set the stage for GOP gains in the 2010 elections, while the Post's Al Kamen won the Gingras Humor Award for his consistently humorous columns on life in the nation's capital, delivered "with a dollop of news." The Seattle Times' Michael J. Berens won the Consumer Journalism Award for newspapers with an in-depth examination of Washington state's adult family home system that showed how efforts to move seniors out of nursing homes into community care subjects them to bad conditions and negligence. Tommy Burr of The Salt Lake Tribune won for his Washington regional reporting.

In the print competition, a team of reporters for McClatchy Newspapers won the Edwin M. Hood Award for Diplomatic Correspondence with its coverage of corruption and mismanagement in the efforts to rebuild Afghanistan. The Wall Street Journal's Michael M. Phillips won the Free Animal Reporting Award for print, telling the story of a bomb-sniffing yellow lab who couldn't handle the stress of combat in Afghanistan. Joshua Kors of The Nation won the Hume Award for Excellence in Political Journalism for his coverage of the military's treatment of wounded soldiers.

On the broadcast side, PBS won the Edwin M. Hood Award for its storytelling about the daunting dilemma faced by a cash-strapped U.S. government as it considers how to provide lifesaving drugs to a growing HIV-infected population in Africa. KING-TV of Seattle won a Consumer Journalism award for broadcast with its coverage of waste, fraud and abuse in Washington state's ferry system. KHOU-TV of Houston won the Free Animal Reporting award for broadcast with a body of work that made a difference for animals, including reports about bad conditions at a puppy mill.

Outstanding online coverage and multimedia reporting of the earthquake in Haiti won the Friedenberg Online Journalism Award for co-winners msnbc.com and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Msnbc.com reporters and producers focused on Haiti's amputees, telling the story through the eyes of a young boy who lost his left leg when his house collapsed and then learned to walk with a prosthesis. The boy was among 4,000 Haitians who lost limbs in the earthquake. The Pulitzer Center created partnerships with YouTube to produce a yearlong series of compelling multimedia projects.

In a special tribute, NPC President Hamrick is presenting a lifetime achievement Presidential Citation to Richard C. Hottelet. He is the last surviving member of the "Murrow Boys," part of the legendary CBS News crew covering World War II. Hottelet would remain with the network for four decades."

Ryle Award for Excellence in Writing on Geriatrics - 1st Place: Inside Edition for its report on insurance salesmen pressuring and persuading people on Medicare to buy annuities they do not need; Honorable mention: The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review for its investigation of widespread mistreatment of patients in state-run homes for veterans in Pennsylvania.